Preschool, Gifts from God

1.

Gifts from God.
To teach my first graders about what gifts God has
given them (many of Which we can not see or actually touch), I wrapped up presents and took them to the
classroom. I made sure that I had one present per child. I put them all on a table in front of the room before
they came in. It really got their attention! Each child was asked to come up to the table full of
presents, pick one, open it and then try to guess as to what the object represented as one of God's gifts.
If they did not know, they were allowed to call on a friend that was raising their hand. (Emphasize that
it is okay to ask if they did not know -- that is why they are in a class!)

Some examples are below:
Box of small toy animals - God gave us animals
Box of real ugly plastic bugs - God even gave us these!
A jar full of sand with a seashell - The beach/oceans.
An empty jar - that was a trick one - Air
Wrapped up doll baby with a bottle and diaper - babies/us/people.
A box full of paper hearts - love (emphasized as the most important gift of all).
A photo album - friends and family.
Plastic or real flowers - nature/plants.
A toy house (mine had bears in it) - a home with family.
A bible - teachings of Jesus
A set of paints - creativity; our mind; individuality
A ball - physical ability (even if there is handicaps)
Pinecone (trees, flowers, nature)
Umbrella (weather)
Jar of dirt (used for growing, building)
Box of macaroni (food) - any food item will do here
A globe (the world and everything in it)

... and I'm sure you can come up with some even better ones!

Be sure to wrap some pretty
and some not so pretty - so you can emphasize that some of the best presents are not so obvious. I wrapped "God's Love" in
a grocery bag. Of course it was one of the last picked - as anticipated. It gave me an opportunity to emphasize
that this is the most important gift of all. The kids were thrilled to open presents even though they knew they
weren't going to actually keep what was wrapped. I made sure that they all left with something (i.e. enough
flowers for one per child, or one paper heart with glitter per child).

(Special thanks to Lisa Machado for sharing this great activity with all of us.)